Winners, only if they look good as well

A woman who spends her working day in a bikini felt driven to
have liposuction. She thought being confident in small pieces of
lycra was crucial to doing her job well. She had a problem with her
thighs and she felt the only thing to remedy her low self-esteem
was to have cosmetic surgery.

This woman wasn't a swimsuit model, but surfer Layne Beachley,
now a seven-time world champion. Among many revelations in her
recently released biography, Beneath The Waves, she tells
how she had liposuction at the age of 24.

Few who have watched Beachley over the years - nimble and
tanned, sliding down giant waves, winning world championships -
would have suspected that she, of all people, had battled fiercely
with her body image.

"I just went to the extreme of thinking that was my only way to
get what I was after," Beachley wrote.

It reminds us no woman is immune from warped expectations. More
than 10 years on, Beachley believes the pressures on young women -
young sportswomen in particular - are greater than ever.

As more money flows into women's sport, the pressure to look and
fit a brand, or image, is heavier than ever. "If you don't fit that
image then you're not worthy of support," Beachley noted. "It's a
really unreasonable ethic to have."

These days, if they want money and attention, we require
sportswomen to be athletically brilliant, thin and sexy. The
hotter, the better. Hello, Stephanie Rice. Even Time
magazine described her as "a world-class swimmer and world-class
swimsuit model".

We know Rice is good in the pool, and we also want to know who
she's dating, and what she's wearing. She features in underwear
advertising campaigns, jumping up and down in her knickers and
bra.

We want these women to be thin, but not too muscly. In
Who magazine's recent glamour issue, Rice laments her broad
shoulders: "I can't wear a lot of options that are bigger up top
because it makes me look too big."

Sadly, Rice's supposed dalliance with Michael Phelps and
break-up with Eamon Sullivan and naughty Facebook photos courted as
many headlines, if not more than, her four gold medals.

"Sex sells, it always has, but now we are focusing on it even
more," Beachley told the Herald. "All of the sudden
Stephanie is more important, because she is hot and she can swim .
. . It's a really unsustainable time in terms of image and
aesthetics as opposed to what lies beneath that.

"There are some phenomenal swimmers that are not offered the
same opportunities as Steph, because they're not as gregarious or
spunky as Steph is."

So whose fault is all this? The media's? Mostly. The enormous
expectations placed on young women, especially via women's
magazines, are disgraceful and dangerous.

The Minister for Youth and Sport, Kate Ellis, has a brave plan
for a code of conduct requiring magazines to feature normal-sized
models and disclose the use of digitally enhanced photos. One of
Ellis's detractor is Vogue's editor, Kirstie Clements. "It's
about beautiful young girls creating beautiful fantasies; it always
has been, it always will be," she said, and thinks the code is
unlikely to work.

Clements's beautiful fantasy is ugly and irresponsible. She will
continue to do women a disservice by continuing to decorate
Vogue pages with unrealistic models. We will continue to
flick through those pages and have our body image bruised, and size
10 women will continue to feel they should aspire to size six.

Ellis has taken a good step by identifying it, but it's still a
huge problem.

Even sportswomen who know the boundaries of fitness and health
are not immune. In 2004 the runner Suzie Rhydderch, destined for
the Olympics, rounded the bend of an athletics track in Perth when
she heard her hip break. Those competing against her heard the loud
snap of bone. At just 21, she was forced to have a hip replacement.
Two years ago, she told the Herald "extreme dieting" did
that to her body.

The Beijing Olympian Lisa Corrigan admitted she was on the path
to anorexia two years ago. The Commonwealth Games runner Eloise
Wellings, who suffered from anorexia, had the bone density of a
75-year-old woman. Olympian Tamsyn Lewis said she suffered anorexia
and bulimia after a coach branded her "fat" as a 16-year-old.

From their experiences, and Beachley's, it's clear we need a bit
more body love. Coaches and administrators need to take better care
of their female athletes. But ultimately, as Beachley puts it, the
media brainwashing of girls - to be skinnier, taller and anything
other than what they naturally are - needs to stop.

1223749846540-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/winners-only-if-they-look-good-as-well/2008/10/12/1223749846540.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2008-10-13Winners, only if they look good as wellJessica HalloranOpinionhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/10/12/th_jessicahalloran_index-lgthumb__90x60.jpg